"THE PRODIGAL SON!"--MO December 6, 1977 DFO NO.641
Copyrighted December 1977 by the Children of God
Dear Miguel,
Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Greetings in Jesus' dear name.
1. WE JUST RECEIVED YOUR LETTER VIA THE FAMILY and were so happy to hear from you at last! We have been wondering what became of you since we heard that you had left the Family and the Lord's work and gone back to the System. But praise the Lord, we were very happy to hear that you're still serving the Lord as best you can with so much else to do, and that you still love Him and us and are witnessing as you are able.
2. OF COURSE WE ALWAYS FEEL THAT THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE THE FAMILY to serve the Lord and we're always so sorry for those who feel they must leave it for some reason or other, and are usually not too happy after having done so. But as someone said the other day, it's better to be a stray sheep than no sheep at all. But of course stray sheep are usually in a great deal more danger and have a lot more problems than those who stay with the flock.
3. NATURALLY WE WERE A GREAT DEAL DISAPPOINTED WHEN WE HEARD THAT YOU HAD LEFT US just at a time when you were being such a great testimony to so many throughout the world. We're also sorry to hear you're having to work and study both so hard, and as you say, life like that is very hard. But we sometimes make it hard for ourselves or let others make it hard for us when actually in the Lord's service "His yoke is easy and His burden is light". (Mat.11:30)
4. WE'RE OF COURSE VERY GLAD THAT YOU'RE FINDING THE UNIVERSITY A FERTILE FIELD FOR WITNESSING, but of course your greatest witness is always forsaking all to follow Jesus and devote your fulltime service to Him, and I can't help but believe that that would be an even greater example to them, rather than being bound by the system, as they are, and not free to serve the Lord fully.
5. WE ARE HAPPY TO HEAR THAT THE FOLKS THERE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN US and even have kind words to say about us. And also that you had a good response from your testimony. However I'm sure those who have seen and heard your testimony would be sorrowful to hear that you were no longer working with us and had left the Family and your apostolic ministry. So we were most happy to hear that you're thinking of coming back to us again. For I would certainly not like to have to write of you as Paul once had to write of Demas--you'll find it in 2Timothy 4:10--and that's rather significant because I once called you my Timothy, remember?
6. WE ARE VERY SORRY TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE SO NERVOUS now and so much on the verge of tears but don't know why, but it sounds to me like those are usually the symptoms of being on the verge of a nervous breakdown! Very frequently people have those symptoms when they are physically and nervously exhausted, exhaustion from overdoing, perhaps from over-working, over-studying, too many problems.
7. MAYBE YOU'RE EVEN DRINKING TOO MUCH COFFEE which can also give you sort of a hangover like that sometimes, a feeling of depression and discouragement when the stimulating effects wear off. I know, I have been through that same experience myself.
8. BUT IT'S PARTICULARLY TRUE WHEN YOU GET OUT OF GOD'S WILL, because then you do not have the extra power, the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit and His strength. You can't feel like you have the right to claim it when you know that you're not doing His highest and His best and serving Him where you know He would like you to be. I've been there and I know.
9. IT'S TERRIBLE FEELING, kind of a lost feeling like somehow you've missed the mark. And you might find it helpful if you'd read one of my old Letters about a similar experience that I passed through when I too made a mistake and had to repent of it and confess it to the whole world:
10. LETTER NUMBER 66 CALLED "BREAKDOWN," at a time when I nearly had a nervous breakdown myself and was physically and nervously exhausted and in some ways out of God's will, out of touch with the realities of His truth and had to exchange my whole doctrine and an established set of beliefs that I had been taught for the Truth of God's Word.
11. I LITERALLY HAD TO FORSAKE ALL OF MY ESTABLISHED BACKGROUND IN ORDER TO FOLLOW THE LORD in the direction that He wanted me to go. I had to make a complete turn-around and go the opposite way, and I had to tell the whole world about it on top of it, because I had led some of them astray in the wrong direction.
12. THAT WAS IN THE VERY VERY EARLY DAYS WHEN THE LORD WAS TRYING TO SET ME RIGHT AND STRAIGHT AND ON THE RIGHT COURSE. Thank God that I saw it and knew it and was willing to confess it both to myself and everyone else and turn around and start going the right direction again!
13. IT'S A VERY HARD THING TO DO, WE ALL HAVE SO MUCH PRIDE! It's hard to confess our mistakes. As they say, the hardest works in any language are: "I was wrong!" But it's better to confess it when there's still time, and turn around and start again the right direction, than it is to go so far as the poor fellow who they found dead. On his cell wall in the prison he had written all over the cell wall: "If I only had! If I only had! If I only had!"--Those indeed are sad words, much more sad than to have to say, "I was wrong! I confess it, and now I want to go straight."
14. REPENTANCE IS A DIFFICULT THING TO DO, especially when we've gotten out of God's will, but it's so much easier, so much easier for the little sheep to turn around and go back to his shepherd than it is to keep on trying to fight the wolves all alone out there in the System!
15. AND I CERTAINLY HOPE THAT YOU DO TURN, SON, AND COME BACK TO US TO SERVE THE LORD with us fulltime and freely in the Family where you belong and where you were so happy, before the Lord has to deal with you more severely and you do have something like a nervous breakdown which would put an end to your studying and working and your service, for God-only-knows how long!
16. BUT IF GOD HAS TO DO THAT TO YOU TO MAKE YOU SEE THE LIGHT and to cause you to repent and turn and confess, God is a loving God, but He's also a very good father and He knows how to give us chastisement for our mistakes to try to keep us in the right way.
17. SO HE LOWERS THE ROD ON US, the Shepherd's rod that both saves and directs the sheep, and sometimes He may have to give us a whack with it to keep us on the right path or to turn us off of the wrong path.
18. BUT I SURELY HOPE THAT YOU DON'T WAIT THAT LONG until you have to receive such chastisement from the Lord. We're all hoping and praying that you'll come back soon--we need you. And the world needs that good testimony and your good example that you were.
19. YOU ASKED FOR ME TO WRITE YOU TO HELP YOU and give what the Lord shows me regarding your situation, and having read your letter I sat here praying over it. Busy as I am, I seldom write personal letters to anyone, but letters to the whole world instead. But I felt led to ask the Lord to give me something for you because you seem to need the encouragement and inspiration and some answers to your situation, and I got a very strange verse.
20. I HAD JUST READ THE ENCOURAGING REPORT ABOUT AL'S MEETING WITH YOU at the University on the campus while they were out litnessing there for several hours, and as I just had finished praying and asked the Lord to give me something on what caused you to go back into the System and leave the Family, my eyes fell on the headline of a report by Al on his litnessing at La Laguna:
21. "LITNESSING AT LA LAGUNA"--and that struck me immediately as the answer to why you left the Family, that you did not want to have to litness, especially at La Laguna in your own home town.
22. "A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOUR SAVE IN HIS OWN TOWN AND HIS OWN FAMILY." (Mt.13:57.) That would have been a very humbling and humiliating thing to have to do. They call us beggars and we are--we beg people to receive the Lord! We beg them to receive His truth, we even beg them to help us.
23. SO IT CAME TO ME THAT FOR SOME REASON OR OTHER YOU WERE ASHAMED TO LITNESS there and that's why you went back.--True isn't it? Well, then I asked the Lord for a Scripture for you and immediately it came right after this answer that the reason you'd gone back was the litnessing, and the Scripture came to me, Mark 8:38, in which Jesus is speaking to His disciples and the people in that famous passage beginning in the 34th verse:
24. "WHOSOEVER WILL COME AFTER ME, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS (LITNESSING?) AND FOLLOW ME. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
25. BUT THEN IT WAS THE 38TH VERSE WHICH STRUCK ME particularly regarding your case when you asked me to get some answer from the Lord for you: "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels!"
26. THERE'S A VERY STRIKING APPLICATION TO YOUR PARTICULAR CASE and your problem, Miguel, because in a way it is because of the litnessing that you went back, because you were ashamed to litness. And, in a way, that was being "ashamed of Me and My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation"--ashamed of Jesus! To be ashamed of His Words for today, to be ashamed of His Words of Truth in that literature which have come to this last wicked and sinful generation through me, was to be ashamed really of His Words. And He says that "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed."
27. I'LL CONFESS THAT LITNESSING IS ONE OF THE MOST HUMBLING, HUMILIATING JOBS IN OUR FAMILY! It's one of the most difficult, one of the hardest, out face-to-face with the Enemy and unkind words sometimes, and sometimes even persecution and embarrassment before old friends and family.
28. HERE YOU'RE LIKE A NEWSPAPER BOY SELLING PAPERS ON THE STREET, considered one of the lowest jobs in the world outside of shining shoes! But that's the job God has given us to do. I said some years ago when we were in London that God had called us to be newsboys for Jesus, peddling His papers in the streets to the people in order to be faithful witnesses to the public. And that's what we've been doing ever since. And I have said in a recent Letter that I admire those who are pounding the pavement daily with the literature and begging people to receive the truth.
29. I ADMIRE THEM MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE FAMILY! THESE ARE THE REAL FRONTLINE SOLDIERS! These are the ones who really have guts and courage and faith and a tremendous love for the Lord--those who are willing to go out there right on the frontlines and to fight and to die for Jesus and His Truth and His Words of today!
30. IT WAS A REAL TEST FOR YOU, SON, and I'm afraid that you failed it in this case. I just hope that you'll repent and you'll come back and that you'll not be ashamed of Him and His Words anymore, but you'll be thankful, even proud to hold them up before the public and beg the public to receive them, thankful that you have such a lowly task and yet one of the most precious and exalted tasks in the world!
31. BECAUSE GOD PUTS APOSTLES, THOSE SENT WITH A MESSAGE, A WORD MEANING MESSENGERS, AT THE TOP OF HIS LIST. He says "firstly apostles" at the top of His list there in 1Cor.12:28. He gives a list of His servants and His jobs, the offices, and He puts apostles first!
32. AN APOSTLE IS ONE SENT WITH A MESSAGE, THE MESSENGERS, THOSE WHO BEAR THE MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE, THE MISSIONARIES! They're on top of the stack! They're on the top of God's list. When people look at you on the streets, maybe you're on the bottom of their list, but you're on the top of God's list, and you should be proud to be a servant of the Almighty God, the Most High, and His own faithful messenger bearing His Words to the people!
33. IT SHOULD BE A TASK FOR WHICH YOU CAN BE SO THANKFUL AND SO HAPPY TO PERFORM FOR JESUS! IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE FAMILY, it is the most important work that we have to do, and literally every moment that you're doing it you're fulfilling the commandment of Jesus Christ to "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!" (Mark 16:15.)--You could hardly do it any better than out litnessing.
34. OF COURSE THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THE FAMILY which are extremely important, perhaps almost equally important, such as the publication of the Words. Someone has to type them, someone has to edit them, someone has to illustrate them, and someone has to translate them, someone has to print them, distribute them and so on, and all of these are very essential and equally essential jobs.
35. BUT IF THOSE DISCIPLES WERE NOT OUT THERE POUNDING THE PAVEMENTS EVERYDAY, FACING THE ENEMY EVERYDAY AND DISTRIBUTING THE LITERATURE, LITNESSING DAILY, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR ALL OF THE OTHERS! All the rest would be in vain. That is the ultimate in our work--litnessing is the ultimate in our work, in our witnessing. Sowing the seed, that's our job. It's good to reap, it's good to win souls, it's good to see folks saved, but that's the Holy Spirit's job. Winning them, saving them, is God's job.
36. OUR JOB IS TO GET THE WORD TO THEM, TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, TO SOW THE SEED, TO WITNESS!--That's what God has called us for. And if we're ashamed to litness, then we're ashamed of His Words, we're ashamed of our task, we're ashamed of Jesus!
37. WHEN I HEARD THAT YOU'D ACTUALLY QUIT THE FAMILY and gone back to your old ruts in the System I just could hardly believe it, Son! It was almost unbelievable, as tremendous a ministry as you had had, and as wonderfully as you had worked before, and the souls that were won.
38. I'M SURE THAT MANY OF THEM MUST HAVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED TO SEE YOU GO BACK to your same old haunts, back into the System, out of the Family, out of fulltime service, back serving the System. Jesus Himself said that you just can't do it. He said in Matthew 6 that you can't serve two masters, it's impossible. You know the passage so well I'm sure, Matthew 6:24, He says:
39. "NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon!" Mammon is the god of this world, the god of money, the god of even earning a living for yourself or even for your mother. He said you cannot serve God and mammon.
40. I UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU QUIT THE FAMILY YOU GAVE AS AN EXCUSE YOU WERE AFRAID THAT THE FAMILY WAS GOING TO RUN OUT OF MONEY and you might not have enough to eat and so on. God has never ever deserted us in that way! He has never left us without our needs. In fact He has abundantly heaped more than our needs upon us as long as we faithfully serve Him and do His will and preach His Gospel and witness to the world and litness His truth faithfully daily.
41. NO FAITHFUL LITNESSER HAS EVER LACKED FOR ANYTHING. God's Word is true and God has promised that is we do His work, He will take care of us. It's right here in the same passage, just read the whole passage, Matthew 6:24, right to the end. It says in the 31st verse:
42. "THEREFORE TAKE NO THOUGHT SAYING WHAT SHALL WE EAT? OR, WHAT SHALL WE DRINK? OR WHERE WITHAL SHALL WE BE CLOTHED? For after all these things do the Gentiles (or the world) seek. For your Heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
43. "BUT SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU." God has promised it, Miguel, God has promised to take care of our needs if we seek His Kingdom first, if we put that first. "Take no thought therefore for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."
44. QUIT WORRYING ABOUT TOMORROW!--"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof", He says. "But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
45. REMEMBER, "NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon!"--It's impossible! You must either serve one or the other.
46. DON'T TELL ME THAT WITH A JOB AND WORKING AND STUDYING AND ALL THAT YOU'RE HAVING TO DO THAT YOU RE REALLY PUTTING GOD FIRST AND HIS KINGDOM FIRST! What are you really spending most of your time and your strength doing, Miguel? Preaching the Gospel? Litnessing the truth? Serving God? Are you devoting your full time to God's service? Are you serving only God?--And Him alone?--And not mammon? Why labour ye for that which is not meat? (Jn.6:27.)
47. CAN YOU TRULY AND SERIOUSLY AND HONESTLY SAY THAT YOU ARE NOW SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD FIRST AND ABOVE ALL?--That you're giving Him most and first of your time and strength and your energy? That you're devoting your whole life to His service? What would your classmates say? What would our workmates say?
48. WOULD THEY SAY IN LOOKING AT YOU, "MIGUEL, I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU'RE SERVING GOD FULLTIME. So glad to see you're out preaching the Gospel fulltime. So glad to see you're putting God and His kingdom first in your life above all else and serving only one Master--Jesus Christ!"--Is that what they say now? They must have said it at one time when you were serving Him fulltime and you were out preaching the Gospel. They must have said it, but I wonder if they still say it now?
49. COME BACK TO HIS FULLTIME SERVICE, SON, COME BACK TO THE FAMILY where you can serve the Lord fulltime and you don't have to worry about needs, the Lord will take care of them--both your needs and your mother's needs, God will take care of her too. He's promised!
50. DOES YOUR MOTHER BELONG TO THE LORD? THEN GOD HAS PROMISED TO TAKE CARE OF HER. He says "he that fails to care for his own is worse than an infidel." (1Tim.5:8.)--If God fails to care for His own, He Himself is worse than an infidel! Will He take care of You? Will He take care of your mother if you serve Him fulltime and you go to work for Jesus fulltime doing His work and His work alone? Yes, He'll more than take care of you both. He'll be so good to you you'll never be able to dream what He could do for you!
51. WHEN I GOT THIS MESSAGE FROM THE LORD THAT YOU HAD QUIT THE FAMILY BECAUSE YOU WERE ASHAMED TO LITNESS in front of your friends there--that is the hardest place to witness and litness, I can vouch for that, there in front of your friends and your own family, because "a prophet is not without honour save in his own country amongst his own kindred." (Mt.13:57.)
52. WHEN I KNEW THEN THAT THAT WAS YOUR PROBLEM, THAT THAT'S WHY YOU QUIT THE FAMILY, I WAS ABOUT TO OFFER YOU ANOTHER JOB that's equally as important and in which you proved yourself as a good worker. And that is a job with Carlos in Madrid translating the letters into Spanish. He said you were one of his best helpers and that you were one of the best translators because you had a good grasp of both languages and of the Spirit, and he really misses you.
53. I WAS THINKING, THAT WAY YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO FACE THE PUBLIC, you wouldn't have to face your family and friends, you could just stay in secret behind the scenes and face only God and your co-workers in the Translating Department translating the Letters for the Lord.
54. BUT SON, THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE MORE I REALISE THAT YOU'D BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF KNOWING YOU HAD FAILED IN THIS ONE BATTLE, to gain the victory over your fear, your embarrassment, your shame of litnessing. How could you really put your whole heart and soul into translating the Letters, how could you do it in the right spirit, how could you really forsake all and feel you were really serving the Lord as you should?
55. HOW COULD YOU MERELY TRANSLATE THE WORDS, KNOWING ALL THE TIME THAT YOU YOURSELF WERE ASHAMED TO GET OUT ON THE STREET AND DISTRIBUTE THEM? How could you translate words that you yourself were ashamed to litness? That must be why the Lord gave me that Scripture that "Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words before this wicked and adulterous generation, of him will the Son of man be ashamed"!
56. I'D LIKE YOU TO COME BACK TO THE FAMILY, we could certainly use your talents, the Lord could use your talents and your service, particularly as a translator of the Words. But I don't think you'll ever be able to face yourself or face God honestly until you yourself are willing to get out and face the Enemy in hand-to-hand conflict right on the front lines, right there on the streets with the Words.
57. I KNOW IT'S EMBARRASSING IF YOU STILL HAVE ANY PRIDE LEFT, it's very humbling and humiliating if you're ashamed to do it. But I don't think you'll ever get the victory and I don't think you'll ever be the kind of a soldier that the Lord wants you to be until you yourself are unashamed to get out and litness and proclaim Gods Words for today, unashamed of His Words for today.
58. BUT GOD NEVER GIVES US BURDENS GREATER THAN WE'RE ABLE TO BEAR, He always gives us some way of escape, and let me suggest that if you don't want to witness and litness there, then perhaps you'd be willing to go to the Peninsula, to Madrid, and work there as a translator.
59. EVEN THERE YOU MIGHT BE WILLING TO LITNESS since you don't have to face your old friends and your old cronies and family and people there that you know. You could face the people of Madrid who need our message today. That might be one helpful way out because I know it's difficult for you to do it there.
60. BUT WE WANTED YOU TO GO BACK THERE TO LA LAGUNA BECAUSE WE THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO REVIVE THE CATACOMB MINISTRY that you had there at one time when you were a faithful witness and you were unashamed of the Words and you were witnessing them--until litnessing came alone. That seemed to be the last straw, you weren't quite able to go that far. And that's sad, because I think that would have given you a great victory in your life.
61. NOW YOU'RE BEING REALLY DEFEATED and that's why you're feeling the way you are--sad, down, discouraged, nervous, feel like crying--because you're out of perfect harmony with the Lord and His will and His Children. And I tell you Son, there's only one solution, there's only one way back, and that's to come back where you left off.
62. WHEN WE BACKSLIDE, SOME TIMES THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY WE CAN GET BACK to where we belong with the Lord and His Children and in His will, and that's where we left Him, where we left them, where we left His will--And you know where that is. So why don't you come back?
63. WHY DON'T YOU COME BACK NOW? GOD'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU. GOD'LL TAKE CARE OF YOUR MOTHER. If you don't have faith that God will take care of you and your mother, then we'll have the faith for it. In fact they tell me that they assured you at the time you were leaving, that that they tried to encourage you and tell that we would take care of you and your mother both and give her the money she needs.
64. BUT WERE YOU ASHAMED TO RECEIVE IT FROM THE LORD? Was that your problem Miguel? Were you ashamed to have to receive from the Lord? Well I'll tell you, that's one of the earliest lessons you'll learn in God's work, is that you must learn not only to give, but you must learn to receive. And that's one of the humbling things about living fulltime for God.
65. THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO CAN EARN A LIVING. Most of the world is engaged in making money and earning a living and paying for their own needs. But for God's people to serve God fulltime and devote their total time, strength and energy to His fulltime service and His service alone, they must learn to receive from others who are not devoting their fulltime to God.
66. SO THE BEST THAT THEY CAN DO IS EARN MONEY TO HELP SUPPORT GOD'S WORK. If they're not willing to serve God fulltime themselves, if they're not willing to devote their full time, strength and energy to His Kingdom, then the least they can do is help you do it, those who are willing to devote their fulltime.
67. THE LEAST THEY CAN DO IS HELP YOU SERVE HIM, and that's what they have to do. And that's what you have to make up your mind to, that in order to serve God fulltime and not mammon, you must receive your needs from those are not serving God fulltime and who are labouring for money and labouring for their living.
68. THE LEAST THAT THEY CAN DO IS TO GIVE TO YOU AND HELP YOU TO SERVE HIM FULLTIME. That's their job if they can do nothing else. But how much better to serve Him fulltime? To labour for Jesus and to receive wages from Him for your needs, no matter who He used to bring it.--Sometimes even the Devil Himself! God sent it even if the Devil did bring it, remember that? And He'll take care of you, we'll take care of you, God'll take care of you and your mother both.
69. I HOPE, SON, THAT THIS LETTER WILL HELP YOU FIND THE ANSWER to your problems, because I'm sure from what the Lord showed me that that's your problem and that's the only answer, and that if you don't obey God and do what God led you to do in the beginning, then you're going to have a sad tale.
70. THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WORSE, THE LORD IS GOING TO HAVE TO CHASTISE YOU AND PERHAPS TAKE AWAY THE VERY THINGS WHICH YOU FORSOOK THE LORD FOR and the things which you put above His work, perhaps even take away your health without which you can't be much good for anything. I'd hate to see it, Son, so I surely hope you will repent quickly and get back into God's will where you left it.
71. IF IT WAS GOD'S WILL ONCE FOR YOU TO JOIN THE FAMILY, WHICH YOU DID, THEN IT'S STILL GOD'S WILL.--Either that, or you must confess that you made a mistake in joining the Family, in which case you'd have to say that joining the Family at all would be a mistake, and you know that's not true.
72. YOU KNOW YOURSELF YOU DID THE RIGHT THING WHEN YOU JOINED THE FAMILY and started serving God fulltime doing His service, fulltime, seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things were added unto you. You had no lack for anything you really needed, did you? If you did, it's your own fault, you should have told someone and God would surely have supplied it.
73. OR YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN OUT ON THE STREETS YOURSELF AND LITNESSED for it, amen? "The labourer is worthy of his hire," God's Word says so. "Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn." "They which preach the Gospel" St. Paul says, "shall live of the Gospel," and that's what God wants you to do, and you know it. (Lk.10:7; 1Tim.5:18; 1Cor.9:14.)
74. COME BACK NOW, SON, AND REPENT, AND REPEAT YOUR FIRST WORKS while there's still time and before things get worse. What a testimony then you can be to others to confess that you've made a mistake! Humbly confess you made a mistake in leaving the Family and you should have stayed and continued to put His Kingdom first, then all these other things would have been added unto you, as His Word says.
75. WE DO HUMBLY BESEECH THE LORD AND YOU THAT YOU'LL COME BACK INTO THE FAMILY AND INTO HIS WILL AND INTO HIS FULLTIME SERVICE FOR JESUS, and soon, before it's too late. May God bless and keep you, Son, and help you to see these truths.
76. "YE CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS"--you're either going to love the one or the other, you cannot serve them both, Son. Who's your boss now, Son? God? Who are you working for now? Who are you spending most of your time and most of your energy for now? God?--Or mammon?
77. WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING FIRST NOW, SON?--GOD'S KINGDOM? Is most of your time and strength spent for Him? Or are you putting God and His Kingdom second and having to spend most of your time and strength earning a living?
78. COME BACK NOW, SON, COME BACK WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME BEFORE SOMETHING WORSE BEFALLS YOU! Come back before you have a nervous breakdown or exhaustion from too many burdens and too many problems and too much pressure from knowing you're out of the will of God.
79. I LOVE YOU SON, AND I SPEAK TO YOU AS A FATHER because I know what your problem is and I know this is the only solution, so may God help you to make the right choice, and you know what that choice is. May the Lord bless and keep you until you make it, and I hope it's soon.
80. THE FAMILY WILL BE SO GLAD RECEIVE YOU AGAIN, so thankful, no one will condemn you. We're not condemning you, I'm just telling you the facts and the truth, because you'll never get the victory until you face it honestly and confess it. "He that confesseth his sin", the Word says, "shall be forgiven. But he that covereth his sin shall never prosper!" (Pr.28:13.)
81. COME BACK TODAY, SON, come back and tell them you're sorry you ever left and you want to get back into His fulltime service, even if it means litnessing. If you'd rather go to the Peninsula to Madrid and do it there, and help Carlos with the translating, we'd be happy to have you go there. I'm sure he'd be very glad and very thankful to have you come back and help him. They're burdened with much labour and not enough labourers.
82. "THE HARVEST TRULY IS PLENTEOUS BUT THE LABOURERS ARE FEW" (Mt.9:37), and I hear that they need translators there, helpers, very much. They would be most happy to receive you again with open arms, and maybe even there you might to able to litness. Maybe even there you'd have the courage to be a frontline soldier. It's not where all your dear friends and neighbors and classmates and relatives are. I confess it might be easier for you there.
83. SO IF THAT'S WHERE YOU WANT TO RETURN AND REJOIN, YOU'RE WELCOME TO DO SO. Or if you want to return and rejoin right there and have them send you back to Madrid, if that's what you want to do, you're welcome to do so. We love you and we want to help you every way we can to serve the Lord, to return to His fulltime service and the happiness and the joy of serving Jesus fulltime, preaching the Gospel, saving souls, in Jesus name.
84. GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU AND HAVE MERCY ON YOU AND BRING YOU BACK SOON. If you want to come back that way via Madrid, then please just go to Sally and tell her. Confess, repent and tell her you want to come back to the Family, but you'd rather go serve Him in Madrid on the translating team there.
85. I'LL HAVE HER PAY YOUR FARE out of some money I sent her just recently. Tell her to take it out of that, I'll be happy to pay your fare to Madrid to get you back into God's service. We'll tell Sally to feel free to buy your ticket for you so that you can return to serving the Lord and putting His kingdom first and serving only one Master, Jesus Christ. Is that fair enough?
86. THAT'S ABOUT ALL WE CAN DO. WE CAN'T MAKE THE DECISION FOR YOU. We can't force you to do it. All we can do is try to persuade you to return to the Lord. "He will abundantly pardon", He says (Isa.55:7), and you will even be happier than before! I know, because I've done it, I've been there, and I know how hard it is, but I'm so thankful I made the right decision, that I came back, that I confessed, I repented and I got back on the right track again. Thank you Jesus!
87. GOD BLESS YOU, SON AND HELP YOU TO DO IT. Ask for Him to give you the strength and the courage by a miracle of His Spirit to help you to come back where you belong. I hope that the next I hear from you is from them, that you've returned to the fold. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! We love you! Love,--Dad--Your father in the Lord!
--Moses David.
88. P.S. MIGUEL SON, AS I'M PRAYING ABOUT YOU JUST NOW I GET ANOTHER SCRIPTURE from the Lord for you that I think is a warning to you and admonition. It's a passage in Luke, the 9th Chapter, 59th through the 62nd verses: "And He said unto another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him,
89. "LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD: BUT GO THOU AND PREACH THE KINGDOM OF GOD. And another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him,
90. "NO MAN HAVING PUT HIS HAND TO THE PLOUGH AND LOOKING BACK IS FIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD." So somehow that must apply to your case, Son, these Scriptures. Are you allowing your loved ones to rob you of the Kingdom of God or take you away from the ministry that God gave you as an apostle?
91. NO MATTER HOW DEARLY WE LOVE OUR LOVED ONES, WE CANNOT PUT THEM BEFORE GOD. GOD MUST COME FIRST. God and His work must come before our dearest relatives or even their support. So let the dead bury their dead--you surely must have other relatives who could take care of your mother since your father's death, and if not, as we've said before, we'll be happy to take care of her ourselves.
92. WHATEVER YOU DO SON, DON'T PUT THE RELATIVES FIRST. DON'T PUT YOUR MOTHER ABOVE GOD AND HIS SERVICE, AND DON'T LOOK BACK!--Much less go back!--"No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God." Have you not only looked back but now gone back? Well, in that condition you're not fit for the Kingdom!
93. BUT IF YOU WOULD REPENT AND CONFESS AND COME BACK AND LOOK BACK NO MORE, GOD WOULD FORGIVE YOU and reinstate you. His Word says that He'll restore the time that has been lost, and you'll fly even higher than before! (Joel 2:25) May God help you to do it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family